Xbox control senses your emotions

Engineers at Stanford University have built a gaming controller – using an Xbox 360 remote as a starting point – that measures a person’s heart rate, rate and deepness of breathing, and how vigorously the control is moved.

The point of the invention is to detect if a player becomes bored in-game, allowing the game to then adapt and, for example, spawn more zombies for you to tackle.

It could also be used to detect if children are getting too excited during games, and tone down the game accordingly.

The project is being headed by the university’s Corey McCall, who replaced the back of the Xbox control with a thicker unit packed with sensors; metal pads along the hand grips to pick up physiological signals; a light-operated sensor; and an accelerometer.

Below is a short video where McCall provides some insight into his invention.